Working with my son's school towards positive changes

I asked my son's teacher several times throughout the school year if I could lengthen his school day by an hour or two. I was told no every time I asked. I was told that he could only be picked up at noon, or 4:00, and that was it. No other options were available.

Recently, it seems when Andy comes home, he gets really mad and upset. Almost like he wanted to stay at school a bit longer, and wasn't ready to come home. I always felt that a half day was too short, and a full day was way to long for Andy. I also felt that picking him up around 2:00 might work out better, because he has had therapy until 2:30 in the past.

I put in writing my concerns to the special education director. They had a meeting with me and told me right away that we could absolutely lengthen Andy's day. They also let me know that they had no idea why the teacher would have said no to this. So all in all, a positive outcome was had, and Andy is now having longer school days a few times a week. The other days, I pick him up at the regular half day, and then take him to Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy (ABA).

Andy seems to be doing well at the therapy and school. He is happy there, and I am getting a good report. Some of the days, he crashes and burns when he gets home. He refuses to take a nap, even though he needs one, and I can tell he is very tired.  Overall, he is responding well to all the new additional hours.

I have been working so hard around the house getting things done now that Andy is out of the house for several extra hours each week. I've been on a cleaning and decluttering frenzy, and my house looks great. Andy seems to be benefitting from extra hours and is happy to be at school more, so I am very happy to see this positive change.